Artist: Portcullis
Title: Raise The Portcullis
Type: EP
Label: Digital
I don’t often delve into releases more than 8 months old here; I have at my age come to accept that I cannot hear everything that I might like and so I have this vague limit. Not set in stone; that would be wrong for me, but a guide nonetheless.
But it’s a first to feature something that is five years old and not even their last release (that would be ‘A Fellowship Renewed’ from 2022) but having just experienced their live debut at Fortress Festival which (shock horror) was my own first live experience of my beloved dungeon synth genre it seemed only right that having been so very impressed with their performance and music I should search out their releases.
So here we are at the beginning as two riders strike out.
The ‘Raise The Portcullis’. At first we get the the pulsing synth chords, raw and unfiltered that really hark back to the oldest of schools. Sparse and dry. The fanfare rises alongside; distinct notes, and then the percussion rises and the second melody begins to weave its way around. The synths begins to add in a little step and we are indeed exiting into the land. Here it as though the synths bring the world to us in bright light and the tingle of excitement. There is a lively, live quality to it that is so attractive, and you just want to saddle up with them.
‘Crows In The Mist’ begins light enough, but it is the slow, epic fanfare and percussion that rouses you to the seriousness of the the venture. There is something about the drumbeats that is…exemplary. The pulse and verve it brings is wonderful. The tune bends and swerves around it and slowly you will realise you are simply grinning. That is what dungeon synth can offer.
‘Green Shades’ is gentle moment, a respite from the grand purpose. It brings light and a delicacy to be enjoyed, the sounds of the birds giving a vibrancy to the music. Life flutters and rustles and simply goes on, unconcerned by the travellers simply sitting and watching.
‘Far From Home’ is where we find the riders at the end. There is a strange air of perhaps melancholy to the music, but it is twisted into that fibre of the excitement of being alive, of travelling on. Light notes follow their thoguths, maybe as they stare out into the vastness. A sudden shadow, maybe but then the percussion and the synth rises in renewed determination. This is adventure! This is what they live for. So onwards they go, fading from our view into a morning mist and where they end, only the songs will tell us.
This is a lovely little EP: It has a live feel, a vibrancy but best of all an instinctive understanding of how to tell a tale, set a scene and take us with them.
If like me this passed you by, please give them a look and a listen. I really hope that Fortress inspired them to create more tales for us to listen to. There is a rich vein here I feel.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 